Danez Pulls the Trigger

Sometimes familiar phrases,

Applied in surprise contexts,

Can make those contexts explode.

Feel your mental furnishings

Suddenly slide to starboard,

For instance, when Danez Smith

Refers to a perfect perm,

The shade of the master’s face,

And means Michelle and Barack.

This isn’t just irony.

This is how expectations

Can build force like tectonics—

Were it Nancy and Ronnie,

Even Hillary and Bill,

How typical—the hairstyles

Of the tightly wound spouses

Of our plantation’s rulers,

Colonial, alien—

But the depth charge in the poem

Comes from Michelle’s perfection

And Barack’s firm mastery.

You could say it’s in service

To irony—My president was Black

Who exercised gross powers

Of war and hegemony

While we danced in happiness—

And, in this case, that’s for sure,

But it has other uses.

There is no expectation

About what kind of context

A word or phrase belongs in

That doesn’t store potential

Energy. Polysemy

Is infinite at the start,

And binding terms to contexts

Begins their definition

By constraining possible

Meanings—notice constraining

But not eliminating.

Every word’s under pressure

From conventional uses.

That pressure has energy.

That energy can be used.